Cutting post surgical infection rate:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130613092016.htm

Three in ten people in the U.S. unwittingly carry staph in their noses, where they reside benignly as the alpha bacterium in a warm, moist olfactory world. While harmless in the nose, staph can wreak major havoc if introduced within the body, such as a wound healing from surgery. In fact, the researchers found that 78 percent to 85 percent of surgical-site infections involving staph come from the patients' own bacteria. In those cases, the infecting agents were traced to bacteria in the patients' noses by comparing the DNA profile of the bacteria at the surgical site with those in the patients' noses. Most likely, people touched their noses and then touched the wound, freeing the bacteria to roam.

In heart surgeries and knee and joint-replacement procedures, up to 85 percent of staph infections after surgery come from patients' own bacteria… a team of researchers led by the University of Iowa is recommending guidelines that will cut the infection rate by 71 percent for staph bacteria and 59 percent for a broader class of infectious agents known as gram-positive bacteria

the researchers recommend three steps to reduce post-surgical staph infections:

• Swab patients' noses for two strains of staph (MRSA and MSSA) before surgery

• For the 30 percent of patients who have staph naturally in their noses, apply an anti-bacterial nose ointment in the days before surgery

• At surgery, give an antibiotic specifically for MRSA to patients who have the MRSA strain in their noses; for all others, give a more general antibiotic

"We now know we can target staph where it exists naturally in some patients, which is in the nose," she says. "That's the bull's-eye , and we can wipe it out. What we are recommending is a really simple, cheap solution to a big problem."

Those post-surgery staph infections mean pain, personal and financial, with two studies estimating treatment to cost between 40,000 and $100,000, most of it due to follow-up surgeries.

Despite the risks and repercussions, the team found that 47 percent of hospitals reported in a survey that they don't use the nose ointment for staph carriers.